A Modern Cinderella
by nmarie716
Summary: Hermione finds herself, once again, attending school with the Weasleys. This time, however, they are both seventh years as the twins were forced to return to school.Hermione fights her attraction for Fred, but will things change at the Annual Yule Ball?
1. Last Day of Summer

**Authors Note: This is my first fanfic ever, and I would appreciate your reviews. Tell me how you liked it, or what your thoughts are, and I will try to incorporate your ideas into this story.**

"Harry!" she moaned, throwing her hands wildly through the air. Harry looked over at his best friend, and immediately laughed at the expression on her face. She looked frantic with worry, which showed in her choice of outfit: she wore a black jumper with a white turtleneck underneath, but her socks were two different colors and her hair was in a disarray of curls.

Just then, Ron came bursting into the room. "Hermione, I lost my Prefect's Badge already! Can you help me find it?" Harry and Hermione both looked up, and the worry in Hermione's face smoothed away as she giggled. "Ron…" she gasped out, between laughs, "What exactly have you been doing?" Ron's outfit, if one could call that, was even worse than Hermione's. He was wearing only a towel, and his red hair had not yet been combed.

Ron looked down at himself, and a red blush crept up upon his cheeks. "Umm. Well." Harry and Hermione laughed even harder. Apparently Ron was in such a muddle over his lost Prefect's badge and outfit that he couldn't even form a straight sentence. He bounded up the stairs and quickly disappeared from sight, not without leaving a souvenir behind.

"Eew." Harry said, disgustedly holding Ron's towel. Just then a deep howl of surprise came from upstairs, accompanied by a shriek from Ginny.

And then Hermione saw it. It was hanging at the top of the kitchen, right above Mrs. Weasley's head. It seemed to be implanted in one of her cooking pots, and Hermione grimaced at the thought of explaining the now ruined pot to Mrs. Weasley. There were only two people in the house who would have managed such a feat.

"George! Fred!" Mrs. Weasley called. The red-headed twins appeared with a _crack _into the kitchen. "Now boys, you really need to stop apparating everywhere!" she lectured sternly. "But for now, will you please help me with breakfast?" She motioned to the pot hanging above her head, not seeing the damage her two eighteen-year old boys had done, and said, "I think it's time you two actually did something around here for a change. So why don't you help out and make the oatmeal. Make a big serving, there are going to be quite a few people around here, seeing as it's your last day of summer."

"But mom," Fred groaned. "We already told you we weren't going back for school," George said.

"Yes, and what did I tell you?" Mrs. Weasley reprimanded.

"Well, we're both eighteen, and as such, are consenting, legal adults." Fred and George replied in unison.

"And what gave you that idea?" she snapped.

"Hermione."

The entire Weasley family looked over at Hermione, who gulped nervously. "Hermione, dear, you are an intelligent, young witch...surely you didn't fill the twins' heads with such ridiculous ideas?"

Hermione glanced over at Fred and George, who looked accusingly at her. "Well, once you turn 18 in England, you can do whatever you want." Mrs. Weasley snorted, and then replied, "This isn't the Muggle world, dear. I'm sure that's why you are so mixed up."

Fred and George looked livid. They were sure they could win this argument after hearing that the legal age was, in fact, 18, instead of 21. Grabbing Hermione's hand, Fred took her upstairs to give her a piece of his mind.

Hermione was pinned between the wall and Fred. As he looked angrily at her, he grabbed her wrists and pushed her further back, causing her to bump against the wall. "I can't believe you let us believe that. Now we are going to have to go back to school instead of investing fully into our shop."

"It was a mistake. Honest." Hermione swore, looking up at the gold flecked eyes that were so close to her face. She closed her eyes, trying to clear thoughts, but as she opened them, Fred's face was closer than ever…


	2. First Day of School

**Author's Note: So I know I havent really explained the background of this story yet. Basically, Voldemort has been killed, and now life will return to normal, if that is possible at all for Hermione, Hary, and Ron. Their seventh year won't necessarily be filled with dangerous duels with Voldemort or his followers, but now they will have to face the average teen world: gossiping, relationships, puberty, and all the other issues that everyone has experienced...**

**Disclaimer: This is the only time I will do this, for honestly, I find them boring and unnecessary, but I am not, nor will I ever be the amazing JK Rowling. The characters and settings are (mostly) hers; the plot is mine.**

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"_It was a mistake. Honest." Hermione swore, looking up at the gold flecked eyes that were so close to her face. She closed her eyes, trying to clear thoughts, but as she opened them, Fred's face was closer than ever… _

Hermione climbed off the train, smiling as she looked up at Hogwarts. The summer was fun, but in reality, Hermione had been looking forward to coming back to school since, well…since the end of the last school year. She glanced back to find Harry or Ron, but was instead approached by a close friend of hers, Ginny Weasley.

"Hey Ginny! Long time, no see." Hermione joked.

"I know, I haven't seen you since like yesterday. Oh, did you happen to pack my quills? I think I left them on your bed."

"Yeah, I have them. And do you want to know why?" Hermione asked, looking mock angry. "You put them on my bed, and then, coincidentally, turned of all the lights in our room. So by the time I came into bed, I couldn't see anything. And do you want to know what happened? Basically I grew some feathers over the night."

Ginny grinned, "Oops. So did the whole morphing-into-a-bird thing work out for you?"

They both laughed at that and, linking arms, strolled off to the Great Hall. As they walked, Ginny asked Hermione curiously, "So did you ever find Ron's badge? I thought that maybe you did, and you were just hiding it from him to freak him out." Hermione smirked, thinking back to the scene at breakfast this morning.

**Flashback…..**

"_Mom, are you sure you haven't seen it anywhere??" Ron cried, as he tore apart the kitchen cabinets."_

"_No, dear, and I don't think you are going to find it in the spice rack, either. It's obvious to me that you don't deserve to hold such a valued position if you can't even manage to hold on to your badge for **two days.**" Mrs. Weasley stated._

_Ron continued to ignore her, running past the table where Harry, Hermione, Ginny, Fred, and George were sitting, eating their last meal at the Weasley home. Loud noises could be heard from upstairs, and then a huge **SQWAK!** came from an upstairs bedroom. Fred and George looked at each other, their faces once again fuming._

"_Was that…"Fred gasped._

"_Mannie?" George finished._

"_He wouldn't…"_

"_Would he?"_

_The twins ran up to their room, oblivious to the amusement of Harry and Hermione. Ginny, who was used to the twins' astounding ability to predict what the other was saying, continued to read her book, a new romance thriller from The Harlequin Witches._

_Five minutes later, Ron was dragged downstairs by Fred, George following as he pointed his wand in the small of Ron's back. _

"_Don't you ever…" Fred growled.  
"Ever…" George hissed._

"_Enter our room again, or…" Fred said bitterly._

"_You won't even have the chance to ask out…" George angrily mumbled._

"_The lovely Lavender Brown." Both twins then pushed Ron toward the breakfast table, and the missing badge was not brought up again, although Ron was doing some serious moping before getting on the train. _

"_Just….look one more time for me, Mom." Ron begged._

"_I will do no such thing. You will simply have to go talk to Dumbledore and explain how you lost your badge, **two days after you received it in the Owl Post.**" And with that, she gave him a corned beef sandwich and watched as he slowly got on the train. Hermione and Ginny were watching this interlude, of course, with smiles playing on their lips._

**End Flashback…**

Ginny looked at Hermione, strangely. "What were you spacing out about? Was it Viktor Krum?" she joked, knowing full well that Hermione had gotten over him a very long time ago.

"No, I was just thinking about this morning. I think Ron's badge might have _accidentally _been placed in my trunk. But I have no idea how it got there!" Hermione smiled.

Ginny looked at Hermione. If she hadn't practically lived with her for the whole summer, she would have thought something was different. Hermione was more easy-going then she was last school year. Obviously, the fact that Voldemort was now dead comforted Hermione, and it seemed like a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

"Well, Ron will sure be surprised when he arrives in his dorms and sees it lying on his bed. Or were you planning another way to give it to him?" Ginny grinned.

"Well, seeing as it is kind of Fred and George's fault that the badge was stuck to the pot in the first place, I thought I might strategically place the badge somewhere where Ron would see it, and the twins would get the blame." They giggled, but in the back corner of Hermione's mind, she wondered if Fred would find the situation amusing at all. He was still rather peeved at her about the whole having-to-go-back-to-school thing, even though that was technically Mrs. Weasley's doing, not Hermione's.

The two girls giggled again, and walked into the Great Hall with a laugh. Fred, who had somehow gotten their first, turned around and glared at Hermione.

_It's not that big of a deal that he has to go back to school. _Hermione thought to herself, defensively. _I mean, it was a mistake that I gave him the wrong legal age. I didn't know better._

But seeing Fred's glaring eyes didn't make Hermione feel better at all. In fact, she was afraid that she would know be on the receiving end of Fred and George's pranks. And she wasn't sure if she could deal with that…


	3. Boxers at Dinner

**A/N: sorry it took so long to upload this! its been really busy these past months. i just finished basketball season, and i had a REALLY big paper due for english, so it took a while. anyways, enjoy, and i hope to upload the next few chapters a little faster:D**

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"Fred! George!" Lee exclaimed happily. "I am so glad you are here! I got held back because I didn't show up for the N.E.W.T.s last year. Anyways, I thought you weren't coming back. I mean, after the success of the Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, I'd think that you would be staying over the shop this year."

"Ya, well, so did we," George said with a smile. "But certain…circumstances arouse, so…we're back! And since we don't really care if we get kicked out this year…"

"We are going to make Dumbledore beg for mercy," Fred continued. Or was it George? Hermione couldn't really tell as she was watching this conversation.

"Hermione!" With a jolt, Hermione turned to face her friends. "Were you even paying a little bit of attention to our conversation?" Ginny asked frustratedly.

"Honestly, I was. I just got a little distracted half way through your thorough description of Madame Dante's clothing line, which, in case you forgot, I was there and saw it with you!" Hermione replied, glancing back again at George, Fred, Lee, and their following. For once the sixth and seventh year girls learned that George and Fred were back, the table had been flocked; the food was hardly visible from Hermione's perspective.

"Hermione!" Once again, Hermione was shocked out of her thoughts and turned her attention to Ginny, who looked more than a little mad. Ginny, before catching her attention, had looked over in the general direction of Hermione's gaze and her eyes had widened.

"You're not, you couldn't possibly, you might not possibly be, well that's just plain silly, but you…you don't have a thing for my brother, do you?

"Ron?" Hermione answered, purposely misinterpreting the question. "Goodness, Ginny, that was over a year ago! I got over him a while ago."

"No." Ginny answered simply. She knew that Hermione was avoiding the question, and nearly screamed, "FRED!"

Having heard his name yelled, no, loudly screeched across the hall, Fred leaped out of his seat, twisting in the air to allow him to land facing the sound of the yelp. His face was a comical sight: his eyes were opened wide, fearfully; his nostrils had flared considerably; and hi mouth formed the perfect "O" of surprise.

Hermione and Ginny giggled, Hermione knowing that this would put an end to Ginny's questioning, and Ginny quickly coming up with an excuse for her scream. "Your…well, your boxers are sticking out and Hermione just remarked how improper it seemed."

Hermione, hearing her friend, blushed hard, thus causing her denial to seem forced. "I didn't, that is, I would never…"

'_Ok, Hermione, just spit it out!' she lectured to herself._

"I DIDN'T TALK ABOUT YOUR BOXERS. IN FACT, I DIDN'T EVEN NOTICE THEM UNTIL GINNY SPOKE UP." She screamed, quite peeved.

"Well, ok then." Fred turned to sit back down in his seat.


End file.
